CEGAS: The new Methodology promises progress in reporting by the Supreme Court and the State Prosecutor's Office

The Center for Civil Liberties (CEGAS) said that they are encouraged by the fact that all members of the Prosecutor's Council agreed that the Methodology for preparing the Annual Report on the work of the Prosecutor's Council and the State Prosecutor's Office should not be abandoned, no matter how ambitious and demanding it is.

They said that the CEGAS member was present at the consideration and determination of the new Methodology by TS at the session held today.

In the announcement of CEGAS, it is stated that it is pleased that the members of the TS have agreed on the new Methodology, which, from what has been presented, promises progress in reporting by the Prosecutor's Council and the State Prosecutor's Office.

CEGAS, as they state, repeatedly warned about specific facts and data, which should be found within the Report itself, so to that end, today it carefully listened to the guidelines of the new Methodology, as well as the one that everything will have to wait for, so that the system was prepared in advance, for everything that the Methodology foresees.

"Out of 17 prosecutor's offices, only 4 of them objected to certain parts of the Methodology, which may indicate that there is a general desire for progress in reporting, when it comes to the Prosecutor's Council and the State Prosecutor's Office. With the efforts of the Council of Europe and the provision of clear guidelines in part of the harmonization with international statistics, from the Report for 2022, we can expect a more advanced version, which will only announce special developments in 2023, when all the conditions for the implementation of the Methodology will be met," CEGAS said.

They state that this will include more detailed data in the part of the plea agreement, reporting on investigations, experts, statute of limitations, financial investigations, utilization of data in all spheres of the Report, etc.

As they add, we can expect some of these changes already from the next year for the previous one, and some in the Report for 2023.

As they point out, the collection of statistics represents the biggest problem when it comes to reporting.

TS members agreed, as they say, that the information system does not work, because when you compare the data collected manually with those obtained through the information system, you realize that it has no purpose.

"With the amendment of the Rulebook on the internal operations of the State Prosecutor's Office, as well as with the amendment of the way of keeping registers that are not in accordance with the Methodology, with the change of bad practices and the amendment of legal procedures, in the end we expect a significantly better Report than all the previous ones," the announcement states.

They emphasize that CEGAS is encouraged by the fact that today all TS members agreed that the Methodology should not be abandoned, no matter how ambitious and demanding it is.